Todd Gray
Front Cover: .02 Percent, 2013. Pearlescent acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 85 in. x 108 in. x 9 in. (216 cm. x 274 cm. x 23 cm.)
Todd Gray New Paintings
Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan
www.toddgray.com
TIME TURNS ELASTIC I had been a student of art history for many years and often wondered how, as an artist, I fit into it. I had been thinking for some time about what it takes to be a great artist and what makes ‘great art’ great. These questions created a desire in me to somehow place my work into an historical context and that became the basis for this body of work. I have always loved the art of the early Italian Renaissance (Botticelli, Fra Angelico, etc.). I love the altars as well as the beauty and spirituality of the art of this time. I then came up with the idea - If I could combine the amazing frames and altars of this incredibly rich artistic time period, and paint my own work into it, I could place my art squarely into an historical context while being true to my own art and creating something entirely new. I had been making art for more than twenty-five years and had a prolific body of work in which I had created my own unique visual language. I was proud of it but felt the need to continue to grow and reinvent myself. I decided to do just that. This catalog of new work is the result of this intention. ____________________ Picasso once said that painting is just another way of keeping a diary. I don’t keep a diary but I have been writing for most of my life. I have been writing for longer than I have been painting and I wanted to inject my new work with meaning and more substance. I wanted to say something meaningful because after forty years of writing, I felt I had something to say. Historically, I had been making paintings and sculptures that were energetic and beautiful (and I was very successful with this), but I wanted my new work to be a visual ‘diary’ of my life and thoughts. This was not an easy endeavor as I was trying to do this in my language of abstract art. I cannot escape my love for Pop art. Never could. I was born in the same year that Pop art came upon the scene and their images have had profound effects on my life and my art. I was drawn to them like a bee to a flower. Their clean lines, bright colors and powerful energy always intoxicated me. I love the simplicity in which Pop art communicates large ideas through simple means. I have melded my favorite periods of art - The Italian Renaissance and the Pop art of the sixties and built upon them with the unique visual language that I have been creating for so many years. I have tried to do this in as simple a fashion as possible, cutting out what is not necessary and leaving in the end, something that is complete. Like a song, or a poem, each painting is a complete story. These paintings are visual images of my life, painted in a language I have written in for over twenty five years.
PLATES 1.
Law of Attraction, 2007. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 62 in. x 29 in. x 5 in. (43 in. wide when doors open). Three images (157 cm. x 74 cm. x 13 cm.) 2. The Great White Hope, 2008. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 62 in. x 29 in. x 5 in. (43 in. wide when doors open). Three images (157 cm. x 74 cm. x 13 cm.) 3. Waiting for the Aliens, 2007. Acrylic on wood. Mixed media, gold leaf. 83 in. x 127 in. x 5 in. (211 cm. x 323 cm. x 13 cm.) 4. It’s All Too Much, 2010. Acrylic on wood. gold leaf. 60 in. x 47 in. x 7 in. (152 cm. x 119 cm. x 18 cm.) 5. 10,000 Hours, 2011. Acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 70 in. x 40 in. x 6 in. (178 cm. x 102 cm. x 15 cm.) 6. Art Star, 2012. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 31 in. x 31 in. x 6 in. (79 cm. x 79 cm. x 15 cm.) 7. The Main Thing is the Main Thing, 2012. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 64 in. x 32 in. x 6 in. (163 cm. x 81 cm. x 15 cm.) 8. More is not More, 2010. Acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 41 in. x 51 in. x 5 in. (104 cm. x 130 cm. x 13 cm.) 9. Homage, 2012. Acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 47 in. x 27 in. x 7 in. (119 cm. x 69 cm. x 18 cm.) 10. .02 Percent, 2013. Pearlescent acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 85 in. x 108 in. x 9 in. (216 cm. x 274 cm. x 23 cm.) Also reproduced on cover 11. .02 Percent, 2013. Pearlescent acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 85 in. x 108 in. x 9 in. (Close up perspective)
LAW OF ATTRACTION If you open up your heart to what the world has to offer, the universe will open up to you and you can have your dreams. Another way of saying this is that we get what we focus on and the universe rearrange’s itself to conform to our version of reality. Thoughts become things and that which we hold in our hearts and minds, we can magnetize into our lives…like a magnet. ________________________ This painting is framed in a copy of a 13th century Italian Altar. With the doors closed, the words…stress, fear, anger, guilt and anxiety are repeated over and over. In the center of these words is a subtle heart. On top of all of this is gold leafed barbed wire. This barbed wire is a metaphor for these basically negative emotions that we hold within us, protecting and repressing us and holding us back from experiencing so much that life has to offer. I painted this on the exterior of the doors with the intention that when we open the doors, we metaphorically open up our hearts and break past these negative emotions that hold us back and then can have whatever we dream. The universe opens up for us! At the top of the altar is a magnet. There are a number of magnets throughout this piece as I believe that we magnetize whatever it is we focus on into our lives - be it good or bad. The radiating target circles (on top) are our thoughts moving away from us into the universe…attracting what we focus on back to us...like an arrow to a target. This is the Law of Attraction.
1. Law of Attraction, 2007. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 62 in. x 29 in. x 5 in. (43 in. wide when doors open). Three images (157 cm. x 74 cm. x 13 cm.)
THE GREAT WHITE HOPE The original inspiration for this piece came from the Hebrew word ‘Toevah’ (toe-eh-vah) which is defined as an act so alien to our values and understanding that it cannot be understood or explained. It was at this time, The Bush administration was ending, Obama was being inaugurated and Bernie Madoff’s ‘toevah’ was coming to light. The goal of much of my art is to continue to connect the past with the present and in this piece, I have endeavored to do it here as well. I decided to use classic Pop art imagery as the basis for this piece. Not only did Pop art have its birth in 1962 (my birth year), but I also came to realize how significant and important these particular Pop images were in my own life as an artist. The explosion by Lichtenstein, with it’s hard edged lines and bright colors, the numbers, words and imagery of Indiana, and the targets and flags of Johns, have all had an enormous effect on my life. _________________________ I decided to put the Obama image (made famous by modern pop artist Shepard Fairey) on the front of the altar after I went to his inauguration in Washington D.C. I painted it in black and white pearlescent and it stands in direct contrast to the bright Pop art colors of the rest of the painting. Behind Obama’s image is the word ‘hope’ in a multitude of languages. On the inside, I used a classic image by Lichtenstein, of a comic book fighter jet shooting a missile at its target and exploding. This goes right through Warhol’s soup can (through the Toevah) and represents the awful and futile war we found ourselves in. It then explodes (as in the original image) with ‘hope’. Behind the soup can are the words hope and change (in hebrew) repeated. I chose to put my own classic ‘sphere’ in the very center of the piece to place myself squarely into the context of art history. The numbers ‘44’ and ‘62’ are references to Obama (the 44th President) and 62 (the year I was born and the year Pop art was born). The entire bottom of piece is infused with classic pop art imagery. .
2. The Great White Hope, 2008. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 62 in. x 29 in. x 5 in. (43 in. wide when doors open). Three images (157 cm. x 74 cm. x 13 cm.)
WAITING FOR THE ALIENS This painting was the first in this series. It was inspired by a phrase I uttered out loud one day…‘I hope the Aliens can save us’. It was a sarcastic call out to the universe because of what I thought was the waste and futility of the Iraq war. ________________________ I decided to place famous cartoon aliens in each window - representative of the haloed saints and Gods that were painted in altars similar to this for thousands of years. I then ‘sainted’ each alien, put a large halo around each one and had them all looking towards the center. Saint Marvin the Martian is standing on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)...a flawed and biased study created to justify our going to war. I covered it and much of the rest of the painting in oil, as I believe that oil was what much of this war was about. Not finding weapons of mass destruction. Saint Kang (from the Simpsons) is reading ‘My Pet Goat’. This was the book that Bush was reading to the school children when the planes hit the towers. The two inner Saints, Yoda and E.T., were chosen because they are wise. For God, or Jesus, I used the image of a classic ‘Area 51’ little-green-alien man. He is called Jesus` and is a Mexican alien and a small ironic statement towards our failed immigration policy. On top of his sombrero are the words ‘Mision` Cumplida’- which I believe was among the larger public-relations debacles of the war. At the top of his throne is the logo of the Halliburton Corporation. At the top of the painting is the greatest visual image to come out of our war on terror - the Homeland Terror Alert symbol. It was pure propaganda meant to control the masses with fear - but is actually a very pretty and colorful image. Below this I chose to use the words ‘in God we Trust’ (similar to U.S. paper money) and added the ‘E-D’. This was just a reference to the conservative right wing at the time.
3. Waiting for the Aliens, 2007. Acrylic on wood. Mixed media, gold leaf. 83 in. x 127 in. x 5 in. (211 cm. x 323 cm. x 13 cm.)
IT’S ALL TOO MUCH 2009 was a crazy year. The economy was tanked, the stock market collapsed and real estate was in the gutter. Amidst all this insanity, my business partner and I decided to go against the grain and continue to invest in real estate, hire many more employees, and put all our efforts into growing our businesses…basically doing the complete opposite of what normal (sane) people would do. It was a pretty crazy time. It was overwhelming. One night, I re-read a recent journal and saw that I was starting almost every entry with the words...’its all too much’…a reference to a song by the Beatles that often played in my head. ‘Its All Too Much’ perfectly encapsulated my life at this time. The frame was built rectangular and dominant to resemble a freight train and the center was painted to resemble its headlight coming right at you. The color in the center is like an explosion and the word scribbled over this is ‘AAAAGHH’...a scream. The words above the center of the painting are part of an entry from my journal which I projected onto the painting. It was my intention to keep this painting as honest and naked as possible. It is an accurate snapshot (painted in my own visual language) of a pretty chaotic time.
4. It’s All Too Much, 2010. Acrylic on wood. gold leaf. 60 in. x 47 in. x 7 in. (152 cm. x 119 cm. x 18 cm.)
10,000 HOURS It is said that it takes ten thousand hours of doing something to become an expert at it. When I recently reflected on this fact, I realized I was well past twenty-five thousand hours dedicated to my art. This painting is an homage to my love for making art and the realization that I have put so much time and effort into this single-minded focus. It is an altar to my appreciation for how lucky I am to not just know what I love to do, but to be able to spend my life doing it. ______________________ The frame is based on a 13th century Italian altar. I wanted the top to be like a stained glass window in a medieval church. The four ‘X’s’ in the corners are the roman numerals for 10,000 - an X with a bar over it. The geometric chips are metaphors for the many hours and years of my life spent making art...this energy moving out into the universe...ascending from dark to light...from nothing to something...from possibility to reality. In the background are the numbers ten thousand, eleven thousand, twelve thousand… At the bottom of the piece are the words ‘Time Turns Elastic’. This line is from a song by my favorite band, Phish. It is about how time becomes irrelevant and stands still when I am doing what I love (creating art).
5. 10,000 Hours, 2011. Acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 70 in. x 40 in. x 6 in. (178 cm. x 102 cm. x 15 cm.)
ART STAR Art has always been my center. No matter how lost I might be feeling, art has always been where I go to get grounded. This is a painting about the countless times I have veered away from my art, losing myself, yet when I was able to get back to it, was able to find myself again. _____________________ I wanted to revisit Pop art motifs that have always inspired me- and I used them throughout. At the top of the painting, I used a line from an old Billy Joel song - “I’m sure the lights gonna hurt my eyes…” I have thought of this line for decades each time I lost my momentum and was not painting. He was talking about being away from his music and knowing the lights of the stage were going to hurt when he got there again. At the bottom of the painting, I am speaking of the loss of momentum and how important momentum is in every aspect of our lives. It is the same with making art. When away from it, it is often hard to get back into, but when you can get momentum with it, the ideas and creativity flow effortlessly, like a river. In the main body of the piece, ‘Art’ is repeatedly painted (in pearlescent paint) to resemble felt wallpaper in an old Italian restaurant. The desire, once again, is to compare and contrast (in an historical perspective) Johns (target), Indiana (star), Frame (Rennaisance)...with the desire to be a real Art Star (just like them).
6. Art Star, 2012. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 31 in. x 31 in. x 6 in. (79 cm. x 79 cm. x 15 cm.)
BRIGHT SHINY OBJECTS The main thing is the main thing, and Art for me has always been the main thing. It is where I can go to find my center and it is where I often forget to go when I most need to. This is why I like painting targets. They are a perfect visual metaphor for finding my center. The genesis of this idea came from choosing to do something (I really did not have to do)… while I was in the middle of painting this piece. I then realized how easy it is to be distracted in life from the main things. ________________________ The targets I chose were classic Jasper Johns targets. Behind the targets is the word ‘distraction’ repeated over and over on the left and right. In the center are the words ‘learn forget’ repeated over and over- basically the story of my life. In the two outer windows are small glowing orbs. These are painted in glowing pearlescent paint and they stand out dramatically against the flat background. I shot arrows through each of these orbs as a metaphor for how easy it is to be distracted from what is important in life. They represent the ‘bright shiny objects’ of distraction from the main things of our lives. I purposely left the center target, arrow and orb-less - it being where we our focus ‘should’ be. At the bottom of the painting is the phrase ‘stealing time from the faulty plan’. We go through our lives wasting time doing things that are unnecessary and unimportant (like spending our lives behind a desk shuffling paper or watching TV) when in reality, time is among the most valuable things we have.
7. The Main Thing is the Main Thing, 2012. Acrylic on wood, mixed media, gold leaf. 64 in. x 32 in. x 6 in. (163 cm. x 81 cm. x 15 cm.)
MORE IS NOT MORE The inspiration for this piece came after I returned home from a trip to Guatemala. While there, I saw some barefoot children playing with a stick and a ball and they seemed happy as any children I had ever seen. Upon my return, I was at a friend’s home and their children had literally piles of toys - many unused....many unopened! I started reflecting on the children I had seen in Guatemala and had the realization that my friend’s children were no happier than the poor children I had seen in my travels. It made me think about our consumer based society and how we are brainwashed to believe that we need more, and that ‘we need to be more’. This became the genesis for this painting. More is not more... and more, so very often, does not seem to lead to happiness. Quite the contrary. _________________________ The main body of the piece has shooting blocks of color flying in every direction like a modern freeway. Each one going everywhere in a hurry to get more, to make more, to be more…and yet maybe, going nowhere at all...just rushing and hurrying. I painted it to look as if submerged in water because I like the metaphor. At the top of the piece are the words ‘not greater than or equal to’ and inside the top ring is the arithmetic symbol for ‘not equal to’. I chose it for its relevance to the painting and also because it looks like a spiritual symbol in the piece. In the bottom corners are the arithmetic symbols of greater than and less than. In this case.....’less than’.
8. More is not More, 2010. Acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 41 in. x 51 in. x 5 in. (104 cm. x 130 cm. x 13 cm.)
HOMAGE
I consider art to be the fountainhead from which so many gifts in my life start and emanate from. It is my center and I have always sat with awe and respect for what it has given me. I have been painting seriously for more than twenty-five years, and these beautiful and simple geometric spheres (the ones seen throughout this and most of my paintings) have been a part of my art and my soul, literally, from the very first piece. I have no explanation for this, or for my fascination with these spheres. All I know is that they have been there from the beginning and I have never grown tired of painting them. This crazy sphere has, in its own way, given me life. This painting is an homage to them. Though they are relatively simple, they have evolved much throughout the years and I consider these geometric spheres as being part of my DNA. I have always believed that our bodies are microcosms of the universe. In other words, if you look at our bodies under a high powered microscope you will find that we are actually made up of 99.999% empty space just like the universe. These spheres remind me of the atoms in our bodies and are, once again, the DNA (or building blocks) that make up the very essence of my art…and my life.
9. Homage, 2012. Acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 47 in. x 27 in. x 7 in. (119 cm. x 69 cm. x 18 cm.)
.02 PERCENT The Jewish people make up just .02% of the earth’s population- an incredibly small number. I started wondering about their profound historical contributions to society, despite their small number, and whether there was a way to quantify it. I then started thinking how they have been persecuted since time immemorial and how they have always survived (and in many ways, thrived). These thoughts became the genesis for this piece. I started thinking about the Nobel prizes. Chemistry, Medicine, Peace, Literature, Physics...and what gifts these prizes are to mankind. I then started to wonder how many of the recipients (historically) might be Jewish. When I did the research I found that the number of Jewish Nobel laureates was staggering and ‘significantly disproportionate’ to their population. Here was a way to actually quantify the Jewish people’s contributions to the world. _____________________ The entire painting is painted in pearlescent paints. This paint, coupled with the gold frame, give it a deeply spiritual feel. It looks like stained glass in a temple or church. Across the bottom of this Altar I painted five geometric rings. Each ring is a metaphor for the tall chimneys of the concentration camps of the holocaust. I painted red inside each ring to complete the fiery image. Coming out of each ring are small geometric chips. These represent the ashes of the Jewish victims rising from the chimneys. As the chips rise into the night sky they become lighter in color until, as they float at the top, they are pearl white...This lightening of the colors symbolizes the great spirits of the Jewish people…Persevering and succeeding throughout history, no matter what life throws at them. Behind all of this, you can see words. These words are every name of every Jewish Nobel laureate since the Nobel prize began in the late nineteenth century. They are intentionally faint, but quite visible as they are painted against a black pearlescent night sky. At the top of the painting are the words point-zero-two-percent and at the bottom, the Nobel prizes.
10. .02 Percent, 2013. Pearlescent acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 85 in. x 108 in. x 9 in. (216 cm. x 274 cm. x 23 cm.) Also reproduced on cover
.02 Percent (close up view), 2013. Pearlescent acrylic on wood, gold leaf. 85 in. x 108 in. x 9 in. 11. .02 (216 x 2742013. cm. x Pearlescent 23 cm.) Also onleaf. cover 11.Percent, .02 cm. Percent, 2013. Pearlescent acrylic acrylic onreproduced wood, on wood, gold gold 85 leaf. in. 85 x 108 in. xin.108 x 9in. in.x 9 in. (Close(Close up perspective) up perspective)
www.ToddGray.com